performed by Judith Bettina and Parnassus under Anthony Korf (sorry, there’s no video here again today, but if you can spare the dollar or whatever, I highly recommend purchasing the recording [I guess it has to be the entire album, so about $10…] on … Continue reading Babbitt’s The Head of the Bed
performed by Barbara Hendricks and the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas, a remarkable performance, or below by Dawn Upshaw and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under David Zinman We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee … Continue reading Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915
performed by Anne Sofie von Otter and the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado or, because she’s an outstanding performer and it’s a (somewhat unclear) video of a live performance, Jessye Norman and the London Symphony under Pierre Boulez If you’ve … Continue reading Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder
performed by the Quatuor Diotima and Sandrine Piau, or below by the New Vienna String Quartet and Evelyn Lear If I had to pinpoint a moment in musical history, a piece in particular that is the breaking point, the straw that … Continue reading Schoenberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 10
performed by Violeta Urmana, Michael Schade and the Vienna Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez With one stroke, I have lost everything I have gained in terms of who I thought I was, and have to learn my first steps again like … Continue reading Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
performed by Régine Crespin and the L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet [The poems] form a narrative which leads from a spring-born joie de vivre (Villanelle) and a loss of innocence (Le spectre de la rose), to the … Continue reading Berlioz: Les nuits d’été, op. 7
performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Alfred Brendel, piano, or below with Günther Weissenborn as pianist (not to be confused with the earlier op. 24 of the same name) …my most romantic music ever, with much of you in it, dearest Clara The voice … Continue reading Schumann: Liederkreis, op. 39
performed by Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, piano While we’ve addressed Schubert as the composer of symphonies and some solo piano works, his real fame and the bulk of his output comes from Lieder, songs for voice, and our piece today is one … Continue reading Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795
performed by Peter Schreier and Andras Schiff, or below with Schreier and Walter Olbertz as pianist Here we are, jumping ahead to the latest of Beethoven’s works on the blog so far, after seven piano trios, eleven string quartets, ten … Continue reading Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte, op. 98
In the past, we’ve done series about different instruments (and another one is queued up), and I’ve spoken before about the difficulty of warming up to and appreciating opera the way I am currently used to listening to music, but … Continue reading The Human Voice
Fugue for Thought 